The teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 6,819,919, U.S. Pat. No. 6,542,750, U.S. Pat. No. 7,813,741, U.S. Pat. No. 6,542,748, U.S. Pat. No. 6,539,232, U.S. Pat. No. 6,542,749, U.S. Pat. No. 8,150,439 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,549,768 are expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. The teachings of the following U.S. patent applications, having the same inventor of the present application, are expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entirety: “Method and Apparatus for Mediating Among a Plurality of Profiles Associated with Users Positioned in a Shared Location,” Ser. No. 13/572,617, filed Aug. 11, 2012, “Method and Apparatus for a Principal/Agent Based Mobile Commerce”, Ser. No. 13/541,737, filed Jul. 4, 2012, “Method and Apparatus for Location Based Conditional Offers”, Ser. No. 13/548,944, filed Jul. 13, 2012, “Method and Apparatus for Location Based Networking Sessions,” Ser. No. 13/633,133, filed Oct. 2, 2012, and “Method and Apparatus for Managing Attributes and Functionalities of Predetermined Geographical Areas,” Ser. No. 13/716,168, filed Dec. 16, 2012.
A geofence is a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area. It can be generated dynamically as in a radius around a point location such as a bar or a restaurant. A geofence can be also be generated within the perimeter of a physical location. In one implementation, a geofence can be a predefined set of boundaries connecting points expressed by latitude and longitude. Alternatively a geofence can be an area containing points with similar characteristics, e.g., within the radius of one or more RF-ID reader apparatus or iBeacon apparatus.
Geofencing has been made possible especially by the introduction of GPS (Global Positioning System) technology and the miniaturization of electronic components that have made the locationing functionality a standard feature in Mobile Phones and portable electronics in general.
Geofencing can be implemented via many positioning techniques, both indoor and outdoor, such as by means of detection by an RF-ID reader, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth mapping, accelerometers, gyroscopes, altimeters, magnetometers, or led detection modules, just to cite a few examples.
Locationing techniques coupled with mobile telecommunications technology have opened the door to novel, machine-assisted methods for facilitating and conducting business transactions. For example, the above-mentioned application “Method and Apparatus for a Principal/Agent Based Mobile Commerce” discloses a location-based mobile commerce method based on three actors: 1) a user, 2) an agent and a 3) principal. In said disclosure, an agent, e.g. a trusted customer of a certain brand, can be empowered by a principal, e.g. a car dealer for said brand, to represent said principal with deals or offers that have been preapproved by said principal.
Geofencing and location technologies in general, can trigger or inhibit functionalities of location-aware apparatuses. For example, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,813,741 titled “System and Method for Initiating Responses to Location-Based Events”, a system may provide a response to one or more location-based services applications to supply location-based services, such as email, instant messaging, paging and the like.
In other enactments, systems can make available location-based information and functionalities in various ways, as described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 8,150,439 titled “Facilitating user interactions based on proximity.”
All the patents, patent applications and published documents mentioned anywhere in this application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Furthermore, where a definition or use of a term in a document that is incorporated by reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.